A whip or lash, usually with multiple thongs used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back. The naval type uses thick-rope, army and civil prison versions are usually leather. Those used on the condemned have pieces of stone or bone in the ends to cut and tear the skin. One of the implements of Christ’s Passion, and in art it is a symbol of self-inflicted penance, used in pictures of saints famed for austerity.